Agriculture has sought to provide high-quality crops in terms of yeild and condition resistance e.g. drought or pests. Selective breeding has resulted in crops having reduced genetic variation. Because, farmers have identified and grown only crops with useful features. Some crops e.g. fruit tress, cannot be grown romm a seed because a new tree will have a combination o genes that will not give the correct fruit. Bannas have to be grown through cloning as they are sterile.
Propagation using a callus means;
- farmers know what the crop plant produced will be like, as it is cloned from plants with known features e.g. high yield, taste, colour and disease-resistance-ADVANTAGE
- Farmer's costs are reduced because all the crop is ready for harvest at the same time. ADVANTAGE
This is essentially, a 'REFINEMENT' of selective breeding.
Micropropagation is much FASTER than selective breeding, becuase high numbers can be generate from a small number of parent plants or single valuable plant. ADVANTAGE
Comments
No comments have yet been made